A New World of Trouble
by Matt Lans
Summary: The Sonic gang takes a tour of the Egg Carrier, which has been turned into a floating museum. But when Robotnik and Metal Sonic crash the party, the gang finds themselves in a new world of trouble...literally!
1. A trip to the museum

Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Sonic gang.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
It was a bright sunny morning in Station Square. In her apartment, Amy Rose had just finished doing  
  
her hair and was about to grab her purse, when she heard someone knocking on her door. "Just a minute!"  
  
she called as she rushed over to the door. She opened it but was surprised to see no one there. She poked  
  
her head out into the hallway but didn't see anyone so she shrugged, closed the door and turned to go get her  
  
purse only to come face to face with...  
  
"Hey Ames," Sonic said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "Sonic, you scared me!" she scolded  
  
him, trying her best to look angry even though she wasn't. "Can't a guy surprise his girlfriend?" he asked  
  
teasingly. "Besides, I've got flowers," he added brandishing a bouquet of pink roses. Amy smiled, unable to  
  
keep up the angry act. "Aw, Sonic you shouldn't have, but I'm glad you did anyway," she said taking the  
  
flowers and putting them in a vase.  
  
"So you ready to go?" Sonic asked. "Actually I was almost on my way over to make sure you didn't  
  
sleep in like you usually do," she said. "Are you kidding? Tails would personally strangle me with his tails  
  
if I missed the big event; he's been reminding me about it all week!" Amy giggled, "Then let's get going or  
  
we're going to be late anyways," she said dragging him out the door.  
  
"So who besides us will be there?" Amy asked as they walked down the street. "Well let's see,"  
  
Sonic said, "This was mostly Tails' idea so he'll be there. Knux hired the Chaotix to guard the Master  
  
Emerald so he could be there. Tails said Cream would be there. As for everyone else, I think Rouge and the  
  
rest of team dark were on some sort of mission and Big's on a fishing trip so they couldn't make it."  
  
"Wow, not very many of us will be there huh?" Amy said.  
  
"Nope, but that's why Tails is showing us around today instead of next week at the grand opening.  
  
This way we can get a good look around without being hounded by reporters the whole way. Remember  
  
what happened after ARK?"  
  
"Yeah," Amy answered, remembering. Right after they had returned to Earth after the ARK incident,  
  
they'd been practically mobbed by reporters. It had been so bad that it had allowed Dr. Robotnik to slip  
  
away in the confusion without anyone noticing.  
  
"Uh oh," Sonic said taking a glance ahead, "Looks like we're later than we thought, everyone else is  
  
already waiting for us." It was true. Standing near the entrance to the ferry were none other than Tails,  
  
Knuckles, Cream and her chao Cheese.  
  
"It's about time you two got here!" Knuckles called, "What happened, Sonic sleep in again?"  
  
"For your information, Dread head, I decided to pick up some flowers for Amy. Besides, it's not like  
  
we missed the ferry or anything."  
  
"He's right Knuckles, they're right on time," Tails agreed, "Well now that everyone's here we can  
  
get going."  
  
"I can't wait," Cream said, "I still can't believe you turned the Egg Carrier into a museum!"  
  
"Yeah I thought it had sunk by now," Amy said.  
  
"Guess, it is possible for ol' Eggy to build something that lasts," laughed Sonic.  
  
"We gonna stand here all day or are we gonna actually go see it?" Knuckles complained.  
  
"Right, we better get going," Tails said, "Oh, be careful once we get there, not everything's been  
  
completed yet so there's still a few work crews doing some finishing touches." And with that everyone  
  
followed Tails aboard the ferry and headed out to the Egg Carrier.  
  
The ferry ride out to the Egg Carrier was short, but it gave Tails time to explain what they'd been  
  
doing to the ship over the last few months. "I was actually quite surprised that it was still mostly in working  
  
order, even after all that time in the water the ship's main power was still working. Well after we made sure  
  
the ship would stay afloat, we tracked down stuff from our old adventures. There wasn't much, mostly old  
  
robots of Eggman's that we were able to rebuild for display, some old newspaper articles and a bunch of  
  
photos, but we did turn up a few really good exhibits. I won't go into detail because that would spoil the  
  
surprise," he grinned.  
  
"What surprise? The newspapers have been going into detail about this for weeks!" Knuckles said  
  
from the back of the ferry.  
  
"Knuckles!" "Shut up dred head!", "That was mean!" shouted Amy, Sonic and Cream respectively.  
  
"Chao!" Cheese shouted angrily.  
  
Meanwhile another boat was approaching the Egg Carrier with two figures aboard; both dressed as  
  
part of one of the work crews. One was tall and rather large while the other was about Sonic's height. "You  
  
remember the plan right?" the tall one asked. "Yes doctor," answered the other in a metallic sounding voice.  
  
"Good. Stick to it and I'll have my creation back from that pathetic fox before they know what hits them!" 


	2. Metal Chaos and the return of a friend

Chapter 2  
  
Robotnik and Metal Sonic reached the Egg Carrier first. "Ok, lets get started," Robotnik said, "You  
  
grab the Chaos Emeralds from the display, while I get to the bridge and re- establish control over the ship's  
  
systems."  
  
Behind him, Metal rolled his eyes. "Doctor, you asked me on the way here if I remembered the plan,  
  
and I said I did. Why did you just repeat the plan?"  
  
"Never mind! Let's just get moving, the ferry with those accursed mobians will be here soon and I  
  
want to be in position just in case they see through our disguises."  
  
"Right," Metal replied, and with that took off towards the rear of the ship leaving Robotnik standing  
  
there by himself.  
  
He sighed, "Why did I have to use part of that blasted hedgehog's personality in his new  
  
programming?" he asked himself as he began walking to the bridge tower.  
  
Meanwhile the ferry had arrived and the gang boarded the Egg Carrier, marveling at the excellent  
  
restoration job the work crews had done.  
  
"Wow, Tails, you guys sure got this tub looking brand new," Sonic said as they walked around the  
  
forward deck.  
  
"Yeah, the museum people do great work. So what would you guys like to see first?" Tails asked  
  
them."  
  
"How 'bout the Chaos Emeralds?" Knuckles suggested.  
  
Everyone except Tails and Knuckles stared at him then turned to Tails. "You're keeping all seven  
  
emeralds here?" Amy asked.  
  
"Yeah, they're one of the main exhibits. But don't worry; they're in a case made of a high density  
  
transparent alloy, it'd be tough for even Eggman to get them through that," Tails said.  
  
Sonic grinned, "Sounds like a plan to me, lead the way lil'bro."  
  
Metal Sonic walked into what used to be the swimming pool. The pool had been filled in to make  
  
room for various displays. In the center of the room, resting in a large glass case, were the seven Chaos  
  
Emeralds. Metal took off the backpack he was wearing over his disguise and pulled out a metal tube with  
  
seven depressions in it, one for each emerald. He then walked up to the case and extended one of his clawed  
  
fingers, running it down the glass.  
  
"Hmph, clever little kitsune," he muttered as he saw that it had no effect. Forgoing stealth, he pulled  
  
back his fist and punched right through the case, creating a large hole in it. Luckily for him the security  
  
systems weren't active yet. He began grabbing the emeralds and putting them in the tube. He had retrieved  
  
six before the door opened and Sonic and the gang came in.  
  
"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Tails yelled when he saw him.  
  
Metal flinched, but quickly grabbed the last emerald.  
  
Knuckles rushed forward and grabbed the back of his jumpsuit, "The kid asked you a question,  
  
punk!" he said menacingly.  
  
"Impulsive as ever, echidna. Nice to know some things never change," Metal scoffed. In the blink of  
  
an eye Metal grabbed Knuckles' wrist and threw him over his shoulder into a wall. Knuckles managed to  
  
keep his grip on Metal's jumpsuit and it went with him.  
  
"Metal Sonic!" Amy shrieked.  
  
"But how? We all beat you into scrap!" Sonic said.  
  
Metal grabbed the cap still on his head and threw it off. "Wrong hedgehog, the Metal Overlord was  
  
Metal Sonic 2.0. That traitor was supposed to be my replacement, but as you know, he betrayed the Doctor.  
  
After he evaded the Chaotix, he upgraded and reactivated me."  
  
Sonic smirked, "So, you're just the original rust bucket, huh? Good, that makes this all the easier!"  
  
he shouted as he sped forward. He jumped and did a homing attack at Metal, only to go flying head first into  
  
the unbroken part of the case as Metal moved out of the way and smacked him with the back of his hand.  
  
"Not as easy as you thought, eh Sonic?" Metal asked with a hint of sarcasm. If his face wasn't made  
  
of metal, he'd be smirking.  
  
"Ow," Sonic groaned.  
  
While this was happening, Robotnik was busy on the bridge. He sat down in the large command  
  
chair which rolled forward, allowing him to reach the main control console. He pulled out a disk and slid it  
  
into a slot, then began typing on a keyboard in front of him. Soon, a holographic screen popped up in front  
  
of him, which displayed: GREETINGS DR. ROBOTNIK. PLEASE STATE SECURITY CODE.  
  
Robotnik smiled, "Code: 1337." The computer beeped and displayed another message: CODE  
  
ACCEPTED. WHAT IS YOUR COMMAND DR. ROBOTNIK? "Activate emergency alert protocols and  
  
begin Operation: Retrieval."  
  
EMERGANCY PROTOCOLS ACTIVE. ALL MONORAIL ACTIVITY HAS BEEN HALTED.  
  
BEGINNING OPERATION: RETRIEVAL, the computer said. A panel in the floor beside Robotnik opened  
  
and a small pedestal rose up. PLEASE INSERT CHAOS EMERALD POWER CORE.  
  
"Excellent. Now, to wait for Metal Sonic to bring the Emeralds."  
  
Back in the emerald room, things weren't going well for Sonic and friends. Sonic and Knuckles were  
  
still trying to attack Metal but the robot hedgehog was moving too fast.  
  
"We're going to need help!" Tails said, "Amy, stay here and try to keep Metal Sonic busy! Cream,  
  
come with me, I'll need your help." He grabbed Cream's hand and they rushed out the door, taking the lift  
  
down to the Egg Carrier's lower deck.  
The main room had been converted into a display area for mock ups of some of the more well known  
  
robots the gang had faced; Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, Silver Sonic, Zero, etc. But also stored here were  
  
the Cyclone; the transforming battle walker Tails had used during the ARK incident, and something covered  
  
in a white sheet.  
  
Tails led them over to it. "Here, help me get this sheet off."  
  
"What is it?" Cream asked as she moved to help.  
  
"It was going to be a surprise for Amy," he said as they pulled the sheet off, revealing a bright red  
  
E-100 series robot with the number 102 painted on his right side.  
  
"AHH!" Cream shrieked when she saw the bot, "Its Chaos Gamma!"  
  
"Calm down Cream, this isn't Chaos Gamma, this is the original Gamma. I found him when we  
  
started the repair job to turn the Egg Carrier into a museum. I've been repairing him and also gave him a few  
  
upgrades. I didn't mess with his memory or personality though; I didn't want to accidentally turn him back  
  
to the way he was before he was good." Tails then opened a panel in Gamma's back. "Could you hand me  
  
the two Chaos Drives in that box over there?"  
  
Cream nodded and quickly retrieved the drives, one red and one green, from the box Tails had  
  
pointed to and handed them to him.  
  
Tails quickly inserted the drives into Gamma's power core and then flicked a switch before closing  
  
the panel back up.  
  
Gamma straightened up and his eyes lit up. His head spun around slowly, taking in his surroundings.  
  
"Recognize location: Egg Carrier." He then turned to look at Tails and Cream. "Recognize, Miles  
  
Prower. No data on female mobian rabbit or male chao." He paused then, accessing his memory. "Error,  
  
final data entry concludes that this unit was destroyed by E-101 Beta. How am I active?"  
  
"I found your body and fixed you," Tails explained, "Your main power is now a pair of chaos drives.  
  
I also made some other modifications as well, but I don't have time to explain them. Metal Sonic's here and  
  
he's after the Chaos Emeralds! Sonic, Knuckles and Amy are keeping him busy, but Robotnik himself may  
  
be here too. We need you to go help fight him. We'll be right behind you in the Cyclone once I get it  
  
powered up."  
  
"Amy," Gamma said, "Mission acknowledged, battle mode engaged," he droned, powering up his  
  
laser blaster and running full out to the lift back to the main deck.  
  
Back upstairs, the battle with Metal was still going full out, though our heroes were losing it.  
  
Knuckles had been knocked out after a blow to the head, and though Amy had bashed Metal several times,  
  
her blows didn't seem to have any effect. Sonic was about to go another round with the robot when they  
  
heard Robotnik's voice over the ship's intercom, "Metal where are those emeralds? Get to the bridge on the  
  
double!"  
  
Metal immediately broke off the fight, scooped up the tube containing the emeralds and flew out the  
  
door...and ran straight into Gamma's steel fist! Metal flew backwards, dropping the emeralds and crashed  
  
into the wall next to the door. "Unit Metal Sonic, you will surrender and power down immediately or face  
  
the consequences."  
  
Metal reached up and pulled his head out of the dent it had created in the wall. "Well well, E-102. I  
  
thought Beta had dealt with you a few years ago."  
  
"Negative. Repeat: Surrender and power down."  
  
While this was taking place Sonic and Amy had run out of the room to follow Metal. When they saw  
  
Gamma they both stopped, their jaws dropping in surprise. "G-gamma? Is that you?" Amy asked, unable to  
  
believe her eyes. The last time she had seen a robot like Gamma, it had been a copy that Dr. Robotnik had  
  
made to help him hunt down Emerl the Gizoid.  
  
The sound of Amy's voice attracted Gamma's attention. "Amy?" he said, turning to look at her.  
  
Metal took advantage of the robot's distraction and charged him.  
  
"Look out!" Amy shrieked. Gamma snapped back to attention and leaped over the charging robot.  
  
But Gamma was no longer Metal's target. He instead grabbed the tube containing the emeralds and sped  
  
away towards the bridge.  
  
"Oh, Sonic I'm sorry!" Amy wailed, "If I hadn't distracted Gamma, Metal Sonic wouldn't have  
  
gotten away!"  
  
"Don't sweat it Ames, he's hasn't gotten away yet. Stay here with Gamma," he told her before  
  
dashing after Metal.  
  
Gamma watched the departing hedgehog before walking over to Amy. "Are you unharmed Amy  
  
Rose?"  
  
"Yes I'm ok, Gamma. Thank you for asking," she said, "It's good to see you again, the real you I  
  
mean."  
  
"It is good to see, you too Amy Rose."  
  
Dr. Robotnik was waiting when Metal arrived on the bridge. "Ah, finally! Place the power core on  
  
the pedestal there so we can get going. Once we Chaos Control the Egg Carrier back to my new base we can  
  
deal with those pests at our leisure."  
  
Metal rolled his eyes, he was repeating the plan again, but still did as he was told. As soon as he set  
  
the tube in place, the emeralds began to glow brightly. Outside a sphere of yellow energy began to surround  
  
the Egg Carrier.  
  
Just then, Tails and Cream arrived on deck in the Cyclone. "Tails, what's going on?" Cream asked.  
  
"Uh-oh, it looks like Eggman's trying to Chaos Control the Egg Carrier somewhere. That's why he  
  
needed the emeralds!"  
  
Robotnik was cackling in glee when Sonic burst into the bridge. "Hold it Egg-butt!" he shouted.  
  
"You're too late hedgehog! In a few seconds this entire ship will be transported to my new base  
  
where my army of robots will take you all prisoner!"  
  
"Not if I can help it!" Sonic shouted, dashing towards the emeralds.  
  
"Metal, stop him!" Robotnik yelled. Metal rushed forward but Sonic rolled under him and then  
  
jumped up, grabbing onto the blue emerald. He tugged at it but it wouldn't budge so he did the only other  
  
thing he could think of. "CHAOS CONTROL!" he shouted, attempting to redirect their destination to  
  
somewhere not under Robotnik's thumb. Outside the effects were immediate. The sphere's color changed  
  
from yellow to blue and the glow quickly became blindingly bright. A few seconds later the Egg Carrier,  
  
and everyone on board, disappeared.  
  
******  
  
Lans - Longer chapter this time. Where will the gang end up? Well, you'll just have to wait and find out. 


	3. Hey, you're me!

Chapter 3  
  
"Tails? Tails please wake up!"  
  
Tails' eyes snapped open and he found himself looking up at the concerned faces of Cream and  
  
Cheese. "What happened?"  
  
"Well, the Egg Carrier was covered in this big yellow ball of light, but then it turned blue and got  
  
really bright. The next thing I knew, Cheese was trying to wake me up over there," she pointed to a tree  
  
nearby, "I sat up and saw you just lying there."  
  
Tails shook his head to clear it as Cream helped him sit up. "Uh, that's right, Eggman was trying to  
  
Chaos control the Egg Carrier somewhere! But where are we?" He looked around but saw nothing but more  
  
trees. Then he noticed what else was missing. "Hey! Where's the Cyclone? And where's everyone else?"  
  
"I don't know and I'm scared," Cream said with a tremble in her voice.  
  
"Chao," Cheese agreed mournfully.  
  
Tails took her hand and helped her to her feet. "Don't worry Cream, I'm sure that if we look around  
  
we'll find them. Come on." With that they began walking.  
  
***  
  
"Knuckles,"  
  
Knuckles heard his name being called. He had a pounding headache and just wanted to sleep it off.  
  
"Knuckles, you must not fall asleep. My sensors indicate that you may have a concussion."  
  
*Wha? Sensors?* Knuckles' eyes snapped open and he found himself looking up into the bright  
  
green eyes of Gamma. "AAHHH!" he yelled, jumping to his feet and assuming a fighting stance. "What do  
  
you want?"  
  
"As stated, you may have a concussion. I could not allow you to fall asleep," Gamma responded.  
  
Knuckles blinked, his sudden movements had made his headache even worse. "Ugh, you're Gamma  
  
right? The real one I mean."  
  
"Affirmative," Gamma confirmed.  
  
"You wouldn't happen to have any aspirin would you?"  
  
"Affirmative," Gamma said again. A panel to the left (Gamma's POV) popped open revealing a  
  
well stocked first aid kit.  
  
Knuckles fished around in it and found a bottle of aspirin. "Thanks, but since when did Robotnik  
  
equip his robots with first aid kits?"  
  
"He did not. I believe this modification was added by Miles Prower before my reactivation."  
  
"Little guy thinks of everything. Hey, where are we anyway?"  
  
"I am unable to establish a link with any known satellite network and my sensors to not detect any  
  
known buildings or landmarks in the immediate area."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I do not know."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"However my sensors are detecting possible signs of civilization as well as low levels of technology  
  
several miles in that direction," Gamma continued, pointing deeper into the forest.  
  
"Well, then let's get moving. Maybe the people there can tell us where the heck we are," Knuckles  
  
said, beginning to walk in the direction Gamma had pointed.  
  
"Affirmative," Gamma replied following behind him.  
  
***  
  
Elsewhere in the forest, Sonic awoke to find he was still holding on to the blue emerald. Opening his  
  
eyes further revealed that the emerald was still inserted into the power core, and so were the other six!  
  
"Finally something's going right today," he said to himself, picking up the cylinder. He looked  
  
around but saw nothing but trees and more trees. Picking a random direction he took off running, hoping  
  
that he'd find the others along the way.  
  
***  
  
When Amy woke up, all she could see was green. As her vision cleared she saw that the green was  
  
actually a bunch of leaves. Looking around she saw that she was somewhere up a very high tree. "Eep!" she  
  
gasped. She carefully moved around and spotted a few branches below her that she could use to climb down.  
  
She had just started when there was a loud CRACK and the branch under her lowest foot broke. She tried to  
  
make a grab to steady herself but failed and began falling.  
  
Below her, Sonic was running through the forest, but he wasn't carrying the emeralds, instead his  
  
arms were empty, but he was wearing a small green backpack. He came to a stop under the tree and began  
  
looking around. He heard the crack and looked up in time to see something pink, red and screaming fall on  
  
his head. Amy landed on Sonic sending him to the ground with her on top of him.  
  
"Ow," Sonic groaned.  
  
***  
  
Tails and Cream had been walking only a short time when Cream spotted something through the  
  
trees. "Tails look! It's the Cyclone!" she shouted, pointing between the trees. The mech was standing in a  
  
small clearing. It was covered in a few leaves, but otherwise looked fine.  
  
The two rushed through the bushes surrounding the clearing with Cheese flying close behind. Tails  
  
brushed some leaves out off of the mech and began to look the mech over. "Gimme a few minutes to make  
  
sure it's still working right," he told Cream, "why don't you take a quick look around to see if you can find  
  
anything but don't go too far."  
  
"Ok," she said, trotting off towards the far edge of the clearing with Cheese right behind her.  
  
Little did the two know that they had been watched by someone in the bushes. He'd been there  
  
investigating a strange energy signal that had been detected in the area. He'd just found the Cyclone when  
  
he heard the sounds of someone else approaching and had quickly hidden in the bushes.  
  
He'd watched the young rabbit come out of the trees followed by a strange flying blue creature and  
  
another figure he couldn't see clearly because the rabbit was blocking his view, but he thought the other one  
  
might be an orange fox. He could hear their voices but couldn't make out what they were saying, and one of  
  
the voices sounded strangely familiar. He watched as the three ran over to the machine, hoping to get a  
  
better view of the fox, but failed as he went behind the mech.  
  
He was deciding what to do next when the rabbit and the blue thing started heading right for him!  
  
Panicking, he tried to run away but then his tail got caught by the bush he'd been hiding in. Cream heard the  
  
noise and ran over.  
  
"Hello, is someone there? It's ok, we won't hurt you," she called. Deciding to take a chance, he  
  
called back, "My tail is stuck, could you help me?"  
  
Cream walked over to the bush and saw the white tip of a foxtail tangled in it. "Sure, just hold still a  
  
minute," she said. She then carefully pulled the tail away from the branches.  
  
"Thanks," the voice replied.  
  
"I'm Cream, and this is Cheese. What's you're name?"  
  
He walked into view and was about to respond when Creams eyes went wide. She quickly looked  
  
back at the Cyclone then back at the person in front of her. "TAILS!" she yelled.  
  
"Hey, how'd you know?" the fox asked as Tails came running.  
  
"What is it Cream? And who's th-"Tails' voice cut off as he stared at the other fox and he stared  
  
back, both with eyes wide with shock.  
  
Cream just stared at the scene in front of her: two orange foxes with expressions of shock on their  
  
faces. And both had TWO TAILS.  
  
Both Tails pointed at each other. "Hey, you're me!" they said at the same time.  
  
**********  
  
Lans – CLIFF HANGER! If you can figure out where the gang has ended up I'll give you a Tails plushy.  
  
Cream – Really?  
  
Lans – No, not really. The only Sonic plushy I have is a Knuckles plushy. But if anyone wants to give ME a Tails plushy that would be ok too! ^_^ 


	4. Welcome to Knothole, please check your s...

**Chapter 4**

Amy was brought back to consciousness by someone shaking her, "Hey, wake up!" a familiar voice

said. Amy opened her eyes to see Sonic.

"Oh good, I was beginning to think you'd never wake up," he said, "Allow me to introduce myself,

I'm…"

"SONIC!" Amy said gleefully, not hearing the last half of what he had said. She jumped up and

grabbed him in a fierce hug, kissing him full on the lips.

Sonic's eyes went wide and he felt his cheeks turn red. He didn't mind having a fan, but this was a

little too much. He didn't even know her! Then he also realized that he could feel his ribs being crushed and

quickly pushed her off. "Hey, not that that wasn't a little nice, but lets at least wait until the first date!"

Now it was Amy's turn to be surprised. "Sonic what are you talking about? We've been going out

for almost three months!"

"Say what?"

Just then Amy noticed something. "Hey Sonic, where'd you get that backpack? And weren't you

wearing your SOAP sneakers today?"

Meanwhile Knuckles and Gamma were still making their way through the woods. Knuckles head

had stopped hurting a while ago, but now he was starting to get bored. "How much further?" he asked.

"Only a few more miles. We should arrive soon," the robot responded.

"Good," Knuckles said, watching the scenery as they walked.

A few minutes later Knuckles grinned as an idea came to mind, I wonder of robots can get

annoyed? He turned back to Gamma to ask him again when something came shooting out of the trees and

smacked into Gamma with a loud CLANG, knocking the robot back..

"What the?" Knuckles muttered. A second later a yellow rabbit with robotic legs and left arm landed

in front of him.

"Run! Ah'll handle this bucket uh' bolts!" she said.

Knuckles was about to respond when she threw another punch at Gamma. This time, however, he

was ready for her. He caught her arm and lifted her off her feet. "Please cease hostile activities or defensive

measures will be taken," he told her.

"Ah'm not quite done dishin out 'hostile activities' yet!" she retorted, pulling her foot back in

preparation for a kick.

"Very well," Gamma said, and before she could deliver the blow, he morphed his gun arm into an

electric claw and jammed it into her stomach. She let out a shriek and went limp.

"You didn't kill her did you?" Knuckles asked after a moment.

Gamma changed the claw into a normal hand and gently put her on the ground. "Negative, subject is

merely stunned. She should regain consciousness momentarily but will be sore for 1-2 hours."

"Well hopefully she'll be in a better mood when she wakes up. When'd you learn how to do that?

Wait, don't tell me, Tails right?"

"Affirmative."

Just then the rabbit began to stir. Knuckles quickly moved in front of her, blocking her view of

Gamma. "Wh-wha' happened? Who're you?" she asked.

Knuckles smirked, "You picked a fight with a robot and had a 'shockingly' bad time. I'm Knuckles."

"Bunnie, Bunnie Rabbot," she replied, "So ah' take it you scrapped that bot aftah he got me?"

Knuckles frowned, "Not exactly," he said, moving aside and helping her sit up.

"Greetings," Gamma said, "I am E-102 Gamma."

Bunnie stared at him for a minute then said, "Oh mah, I'm so sorry. I though he was some sorta new

SWATbot and that he'd taken ya prisoner!"

"Not likely. What's a SWATbot?" Knuckles asked, not liking the sound of it.

However it wasn't Bunnie who answered him, it was Gamma. "Searching, entry found," his eyes

glowed brighter and projected the image of a large, gray, humanoid robot, with a dome like head, and a red

slit for eyes. "SWATbot: experimental robot developed by Dr. Robotnik to be used as a police force in the

event of a successful world domination scheme."

"That's a SWATbot all right," said Bunnie, getting to her feet, "But why'd you say experimental?

'Botnik's got hundreds of 'em in Robotropolis. An' he already pretty much runs nearlah everythin."

"WHAT?" shouted Knuckles.

"Error," said Gamma.

Both Tails had been staring at each other for about five minutes. They'd also poked each other in the

nose, wiggled each other's ears, and even pulled each others tails. And they'd both done it at the exact same

time. They both seemed to be having trouble believing what they were seeing.

"Cheese are you as confused as I am?" Cream asked the chao she was now cradling in her arms.

Her question managed to snap them out of their shock. "Well this is interesting," the Tails on her

right said.

"Um, you're not some kind of robot duplicate are you?" the one on the left asked.

"Uh, last time I checked, no."

"Oh, sorry. It's just this one time, Robotnik replaced Aunt Sally with," he started but was cut off.

"Robotnik?" Sega-Tails and Cream gasped.

"Well, yeah. Who else?"

Sega-Tails thought for a moment. "I think I know what's happened. I think that when our Robotnik

tried to chaos control the Egg Carrier, something went wrong and it landed us in an alternate universe!"

"That would certainly explain why I'm talking to myself right now," the other Tails agreed, "But

what's Chaos control?"

"It's when you use one or more chaos emeralds to teleport."

"Chaos Emeralds?"

"You don't know what Chaos Emeralds are?"

"Um, excuse me?" Cream spoke up, "I'm sure you two must be having fun right now, but Cheese and

I are getting hungry."

"Well, I suppose it'd be ok to bring you two back to Knothole with me, and come to think of it, it is

getting close to lunch time," SatAM-Tails (if you haven't guessed by now…) said.

"Ok then, we'll take the Cyclone, I'm not going to just leave it here," said SEGA-Tails.

"Sure. Where'd you get that thing anyway?"

"I built it."

"Really?

"Yeah."

"Way past cool."

Cream sighed as both Tails walked towards the mech, "I'm going to have a big headache before this

is over."

Sonic had been running through the forest, looking for any sign of his friends, only a short time when

he found himself on the outskirts of a village. Well, we're defiantly no where near Station Square, he

thought to himself, There's no place like this anywhere near there. Oh well, maybe they can tell me where I

am, and with luck, maybe some of the others are here too.

Sonic dashed into the village looking around for some kind of town hall where he could get

information. Unfortunately he wasn't watching where he was going and ran into a large purple walrus who

was carrying a bunch of spare parts.

"Ow," Sonic said picking himself up. He quickly grabbed the tube containing the emeralds and then

offered the walrus a hand up. "Sorry man, I wasn't looking where I was going."

He took it and Sonic helped him to his feet. "That's ok Sonic," he said, reaching down to gather up

the parts that had dropped everywhere. "Looks like you found something at one of those weird signals.

You'd better go report in to Sally, she's probably going to want Nicole to check that thing out. Well, gotta

go."

He walked off, leaving a very confused Sonic standing there. Ooookay, THAT was weird. I know

that because I'm a hero, no matter where I go people are going to recognize me but that guy acted like he'd

known me for years. And who the heck's Sally anyway?

Just then he heard a voice from behind him, "Oh good, you're back. Did you find anything Sonic?"

Sonic turned around to see two people walking towards him. One was a brown female ground squirrel with

red hair, wearing a blue vest and boots. The other was a tan coyote wearing what looked like a military

uniform. Sally (the squirrel) gasped when she noticed to Chaos Emeralds. "Sonic, where did you find

those?" she asked, reaching out to touch one.

Sonic snapped out of his confused stupor and yanked the emeralds away, "Hey, no touchy!"

She was a bit taken aback by this, but she ignored it, it was Sonic after all. "Sonic, don't you realize

what those are?" she asked, pointing to the emeralds.

"Well, duh. They're the Chaos Emeralds, what else would they be?"

"That's righ- Wait, how do you know about the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Well, how do you know about them?" Sonic asked suspiciously.

"Nicole, has some information on them.

"Well, how does this Nicole person know about them?"

"Prinzess, I zink ze fuel haz finally flipped heez lid," remarked Antoine.

"Quiet Antoine," Sally snapped, "Sonic you're behaving very strange. Are you feeling ok?"

Sonic looked at her oddly, "Last time I checked. Uh, who are you again?"

Sally looked at him oddly, "Sonic, I think-" she began but was cut off as a whoosh of air formed

behind Sally as the other Sonic arrived, carrying Amy. He looked around, but didn't see SEGA-Sonic as

Sally and Antoine were standing in front of him. "Hey guys, what's happenin?"

Sally and Antoine spun around to look at him and their eyes went wide. They quickly turned back to

see SEGA-Sonic still there. SEGA-Sonic, wondering what was going on peeked behind them and saw his

double. His eyes rolled up and he fainted.

A few seconds later he was followed by Antoine who had just seen one of his worst nightmares come

true.

Metal Sonic: I think we need to stop the chapter.

Lans: Why?

Metal Sonic: Points at Antoine who is curled up on the floor in a fetal position and sucking his thumb That's why.

Lans: Great. Well, I'll get a new chapter up as soon as I deal with this. Till then, R & R please!"


	5. 1 plus 1 equals FRIKIN EVIL!

A/N: From now on SEGA-Robotnik will be known as Eggman to avoid confusion.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
Eggman awoke to a splitting headache. He quickly remembered what had happened. "Drat that  
  
blasted hedgehog, now what has he done?"  
  
"I don't know, Doctor, but I don't think that this is the new HQ," said Metal Sonic. He was casually  
  
leaning against a wall a few feet away.  
  
Eggman looked at the robot then stood up and glanced around. He was right. Instead of the aerial  
  
dry-dock they were supposed to have been transported to was a large metallic city. There were large  
  
high-tech buildings everywhere, and the sky overhead was filled with black clouds. "Where are we?" he  
  
asked, mostly to himself.  
  
"Heck if I know," Metal replied, "I've been trying to uplink with the EggSat network but it's like it  
  
doesn't even exist." His head snapped up, "However I think we're about to have company."  
  
At that moment three SWATbots came around the corner. They spotted Eggman and immediately  
  
pointed their lasers at him. "Intruder Alert! Capture by order of Robotnik!"  
  
"What!? But I'm Dr. Robotnik!" Eggman said.  
  
Metal stepped forward and brandished his claws menacingly. "If you three don't want your circuits  
  
scrambled I suggest you stand down."  
  
The SWATbot's heads swiveled towards him. "Order acknowledged, standing down. Resuming  
  
normal patrol mode."  
  
Metal blinked. "Um, Doctor do you know what just happened? Because I have no clue."  
  
"Hmm," Eggman scratched his chin thoughtfully, "I recognize those robots. They're my SWATbot  
  
design! But the design is still experimental, I've never even built the prototype!"  
  
"Well someone did, because I'm reading more squads of them and other types of robots from several  
  
locations nearby. Still, any idea why those things stopped when I told them to?"  
  
"No, but I want to find out who's been stealing MY designs. Scan for some sort of command center.  
  
This place is more like a military complex than a city so there should be one somewhere."  
  
"Actually, Doctor, I would be you that what we're looking for would be in that building," Metal said,  
  
pointing at the immense structure in the center of the city.  
  
***  
  
Back in Knothole, SEGA-Sonic woke up to find Amy sitting next to him. She smiled at him, "Bout  
  
time."  
  
"Amy!" he sat up and gave her a big hug, "I had the weirdest dream, I was talking to all these  
  
strangers who acted like they knew me and then I thought I saw another me!"  
  
"Um...well, that wasn't a dream, Sonic. I saw him too."  
  
"WHAT!? But...how...UGH! What is going on?"  
  
"I don't know either," she said burying her head in his shoulder.  
  
Sonic finally took the time to look at where they were. He was sitting on a bed in some sort of dark  
  
room. Amy was sitting in a chair next to him.  
  
"Amy where are we?"  
  
"It's some kind of holding cell, I think they think we're some kind of robot clones built by  
  
Robotnik."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I don't know all the details, but the other Sonic was talking about this place called Robotropolis.  
  
It's a city controlled entirely by Robotnik, and he's come close to taking over everything!"  
  
"What!" Sonic said again, "B-but how? I mean, he can't even keep his own robots from turning on  
  
him! How could he manage to actually take over?"  
  
"I know, it's like a nightmare come true!" she sobbed.  
  
"Hey, calm down Ames," he said reassuringly, giving her another hug, "We'll find out what's going  
  
on."  
  
***  
  
"I don't know, Sal, I know how this looks, but I can't see this as one of Buttnik's plots," SatAM-  
  
Sonic was telling Sally. The freedom fighters had gathered in the meeting room to discuss the "robotic  
  
spies."  
  
"Sonic, did you not see him? He had me fooled, until I actually saw you, I was about to agree with  
  
Antoine that you'd gone insane!" Sally responded.  
  
"Look at the facts Sal; 1. Buttnik isn't stupid no matter how much I hate to admit it. If he was going  
  
to make a fake me, don't you think he would have made it so it would at least recognize you guys? I didn't  
  
see all of it but from what you told me, he freaked out when you guys were talking to him, because he didn't  
  
even know who you were."  
  
"Point," she conceded.  
  
"I'm not done yet. 2. The girl, Amy or whatever she said her name was. If Buttnik was going to  
  
make fake freedom fighters to spy for him, why make one of someone we don't even know, but acts like we  
  
do? Heck, she said we'd been dating for three months!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Calm down Sal, I don't even know her. 3. If those Chaos Emerald things are really as powerful as  
  
Nicole says they are, do you really think he would give them to us, even as part of some scheme?"  
  
"He might, but your other points are valid, Sonic. Rotor, what did your tests show?"  
  
"Well I had Nicole analyze the blood samples we took before we locked them up," Rotor began,  
  
"Sally I find it hard to believe myself, but not only are they real mobians, the other Sonic's DNA is a 99%  
  
match for ours. I know Robotnik's a genius, but I doubt even he could come up with a cloning process that  
  
good."  
  
"Then, what? He my long lost twin or something?" Sonic asked.  
  
"No, even identical twins have different DNA patterns. This guy is you, Sonic, but my guess is that  
  
he, and the girl, are from another dimension."  
  
***  
  
Eggman and Metal Sonic had arrived at the Robotropolis control center at last. It had taken them  
  
over an hour to get there, mostly because Eggman had had to take breaks every ten minutes, much to Metal's  
  
annoyance. They had had more encounters with SWATbots and other security but each time Metal was able  
  
to command them to leave them alone. They now stood in the entranceway to the vast building.  
  
"Well, we're here. What's our next move, Doctor?"  
  
Eggman pointed to a computer terminal in a nearby wall, "See if you can hack into that and download  
  
a blueprint of this facility."  
  
Metal walked over to the terminal and opened his "mouth." He reached in and pulled out a computer  
  
jack attached to a small cord and plugged it into the console. A few minutes of sifting through data he found  
  
what he was looking for. It was surprisingly easy, there were very few security measures in place and what  
  
little there were, he easily slipped around. He unplugged himself and scanned the map he had downloaded.  
  
"The main control room is located several floors above us. Follow me."  
  
Metal led Eggman to an elevator, which they took to the floor the command center was on. As they  
  
stepped out of the elevator Metal motioned for Eggman to wait there. "I'll scout it out and see what we're  
  
dealing with." Eggman nodded and Metal rushed off.  
  
He zoomed down the hallway and came to a large door with a pair of SWATbots guarding it.  
  
According to his map, this was where the control room was. He walked past the SWATbots and put an ear  
  
to the door. Inside he could hear two voices.  
  
"Reports from the other energy surge in Robotropolis are coming in now sir," said one. The voice  
  
was slightly high pitched and sounded a bit nasal. "The SWATbots have reported nothing out of the  
  
ordinary."  
  
"Strange," said the other. This one was deep and cold. There was also something familiar about it.  
  
Metal almost gasped when his voice check software showed it to be a 75% match to Eggman's.  
  
"Considering what we found at the other site, I expected something quite valuable. Ah well, what of the  
  
scouts sent into the Great Forest to investigate the signals there?"  
  
"All the teams have reported nothing found sir," the first voice said somewhat nervously, "It's quite  
  
possible whatever caused them was recovered by the freedom fighters, sir."  
  
There was the sound of something hard hitting a metal surface. "Blast them! At least we have  
  
something to use to our advantage. Snively! Make yourself useful for once and go supervise the transfer of  
  
that airship to the airfield for refit."  
  
"Y-yes sir," said the first voice, obviously Snively.  
  
Metal was about to look for a hiding place when the door slid open revealing a short, nearly bald man  
  
with an unusually large nose. At first he seemed surprised to see Metal standing there but then he got a cross  
  
look on his face. "You? How on Mobius did you get out? Return to your capsule until Dr. Robotnik is ready  
  
to release you."  
  
Metal looked at the little man incredulously. "And I should do this why?" he asked sarcastically.  
  
"Why you blue bucket of bolts! I am Sub-Master Snively and I order you to return to your capsule at  
  
once!"  
  
Metal picked up Snively by the front of his shirt and poked his metal nose right into Snively's and  
  
looked him dead in the eyes. "Listen shorty, you better quit trying to give me orders or you're going to make  
  
me mad."  
  
"Snively who the devil are you talking to!?" roared the other voice.  
  
"W-well s-sir," Snively replied, "It s-seems that p-project Metal Sonic i-is out of i-it's capsule s-sir."  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
At the shout, Metal dropped Snively in surprise. He looked up to see a huge man stomping towards  
  
Him. He looked very similar to Eggman except he was larger (if possible) and his mustache wasn't as big.  
  
It also looked like he had a robotic left arm. "How did you get out of your capsule? I haven't even activated  
  
you yet!"  
  
"And you are?" Metal asked.  
  
He blinked, "SNIVELY! I thought you said Metal Sonic was fully programmed and ready for  
  
activation!?"  
  
"T-that's r-right s-sir," squeaked Snively, who was now sweating a waterfall.  
  
"Then why doesn't it recognize me!?"  
  
"I-I d-don't k-know s-s-sir!"  
  
"Perhaps I can answer that," said a voice from the doorway.  
  
The three turned to see Eggman standing there, he had been listening in to the conversation the entire  
  
time. "The reason that he doesn't recognize you is because he's not your Metal Sonic, he's mine."  
  
"And just who are you?" asked Robotnik.  
  
Eggman chuckled, "My name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik."  
  
"Very amusing, but there is only one Dr. Robotnik on this planet and that is me."  
  
"You are most likely very correct. However I am not from THIS planet or even this universe for that  
  
matter."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"Haven't you ever heard any theories on alternate dimensions, or parallel universes if you will?"  
  
"Are you saying that...?"  
  
"That's right my good man, I am you, albeit from a very different universe."  
  
"But with some similarities it seems," Robotnik said, motioning to Metal.  
  
"Yes, and I'm willing to guess there is also another similarity that is a pain in both your side, as well  
  
as mine. Sonic the Hedgehog."  
  
At the mention of that name, Robotnik's face contorted with fury. "Blast that hedgehog, he can't  
  
leave me alone even in another universe!"  
  
"Yes, I thought so," Eggman said as he looked around the room. "I must say, this is simply  
  
marvelous! How did you manage to build such an empire with that hedgehog around?"  
  
"Quite simple, when I took over, he and the rest of those freedom fighters were barely five years  
  
old."  
  
"Yes, I suppose that would do it."  
  
"Are you here to trade stories, or is there somewhere you're going with this?"  
  
"Yes, I should get to the point, shouldn't I? When I realized that Metal and I were in a different  
  
dimension I also realized that you might have the same key problem as I do. And of course I was right.  
  
Therefore I propose an alliance."  
  
"What kind of alliance?"  
  
"Your Sonic and mine, while most likely sharing key similarities, have led very different lives,  
  
fought very different battles. Therefore he would be totally unprepared for something I, not you, would  
  
throw at him."  
  
"I see, so you're proposing for me to help you destroy the hedgehog on my world. So, what's in it  
  
for you?"  
  
"The circumstances that allowed my to arrive here have most likely allowed my world's version of  
  
that hedgehog to be transported here as well, possibly along with some of his friends."  
  
"That's all that I need. Two of those hedgehogs running around my city and foiling my plans."  
  
"Exactly. So my proposal is this: I destroy your Sonic, you destroy mine. Plus I may even throw in a  
  
bonus."  
  
"And that would be?"  
  
Eggman smiled, "Tell me, have you ever heard of the Chaos Emeralds?"  
  
Robotnik's eyes went wide. "If you can lead me to those you have your self a deal!" He put his  
  
organic hand out.  
  
"Agreed," he said, taking his hand and shaking it, "With our combined intellects, neither Sonic will  
  
survive our alliance!"  
  
Snively didn't look too happy. "It was bad enough with one around," he muttered.  
  
"WHAT WAS THAT?" both Robotniks asked.  
  
"Er, I said there's enough bad to go around!"  
  
Metal snickered at Snively.  
  
"That there is Snively," said Robotnik, laughing. His counterpart soon joined him.  
  
***  
  
In a nearby air duct a small miniature camera had been watching the whole encounter. Elsewhere in  
  
Robotropolis, in a secret hideout hidden beneath a junk pile, Sir Charles Hedgehog got a feeling of absolute  
  
dread.  
  
"I must warn Knothole!" he said to himself, preparing a homer to send a message as soon as he had  
  
written it up. 


	6. A tale of two Metal Sonics

A/N: I'm back! Sorry for not updating for so long, but first I had finals and then I hit a wall of writer's block. (Takes out bazooka and blasts wall) But it's all gone now. :)  
  
Disclamer: I don't own any of these characters, no matter how much I want to. They all belong to SEGA or DiC.  
  
Chapter 6  
  
"Oh, how could this be being any worse," Antoine muttered to himself as he paced back and forth  
  
next to the haystack, "As if one was being bad enough, now there is being two of him and his bad eating  
  
habits, atrocious housecleaning, and outrageous manners!" He sighed, "I hope Dulcy is being more  
  
careful with her landings this winter."  
  
Antoine was brought out of his thoughts by three people shooting out of the entrance slide and into  
  
the haystack with squeals of laughter.  
  
"Hey that was fun!"  
  
"Yeah, let's do it again!"  
  
SatAM-Tails was the first out of the haystack. He spotted Antoine and quickly ran over to him.  
  
"Hey Antoine, do you know where Aunt Sally is? I've got something really important to show her!"  
  
"Tailz, the preencess is busy dealing with a rather...difeecult situation right now. I'm sure you can-"  
  
At that moment, SEGA-Tails, and Cream extracted themselves from the haystack. Antoine froze,  
  
and his eye started twitching. "Oh, this eez not happening again," he moaned, before his eyes rolled back  
  
and he fainted again.  
  
All three just stared at him for a moment. "Um, is he gonna be okay?" SEGA-Tails asked.  
  
"Yeah, he does that all the time."  
  
"Ok. You sure the Cyclone will be safe where we hid it?"  
  
"Yup, it should be fine."  
  
"Ok then."  
  
The three of them quickly ran off to find Sally. They had just passed out of sight behind one of the  
  
Huts, when Sally, Rotor, and SatAM-Sonic walked on from the other side on their way to the hut they were  
  
holding Amy and the other Sonic in.  
  
"Are you sure you want to be in on this Sonic? I mean, Rotor and I can handle this on our own,"  
  
Sally asked.  
  
"It's cool, Sal, I'm not going to pass out like the other guy did, so stop worryin already."  
  
Sally's response was cut short by a loud, "YEHAW!" from Bunnie as she shot out of the chute,  
  
causing another explosion of hay.  
  
"Welcome back Bunnie," Sally greeted, helping her friend from they haystack, "I'm almost afraid to  
  
ask, but did you find anything?"  
  
"Sure did, Sally girl," she turned back to the haystack, "Where are they anyways?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
Sally was answered by a voice echoing down the chute, "Uh uh, no way am I going down that thing!  
  
Wait, Gamma, what the heck are you doing!? Stop it! WHOOOOAAA!" a red blur shot from the chute and  
  
into the haystack. "Well, I guess it wasn't that bad," Knuckles muttered.  
  
"Everyone, meet Knuckles," Bunnie said as the echidna crawled from the haystack, "Where's you're  
  
friend?"  
  
"I dunno, I wanted him to go first but he said something about the entrance being too small."  
  
There was the sound of a jet engine and everyone looked up as Gamma slowly hovered down to the  
  
ground using his jet booster.  
  
Sonic, thinking that Robotnik had somehow found knothole, immediately rushed at Gamma, but was  
  
tackled by Bunnie. "Easy there Sugah-Hog, he's on our side!"  
  
"Say what?" asked Sonic.  
  
"Sonic, did Metal hit you too hard or something?" Knuckles asked him while giving him a funny  
  
look.  
  
"Huh? Who's Metal? And have we met?"  
  
"Oh, yeah you've defiantly hit your head or something."  
  
"Bio sensors do not indicate any signs of head trauma," Gamma said.  
  
Sally and Rotor looked at each other before Sally asked, "Knuckles, right? You wouldn't happen to  
  
know a pink hedgehog by the name of Amy Rose, would you?"  
  
"Affirmative!"  
  
"Yeah. She here?"  
  
"I...think you'd better follow us," Sally said.  
  
They turned to go, when a small robot bird swooped down and landed at Sally's feet. She picked it  
  
up and opened a small compartment, taking out a note.  
  
Princess,  
  
Something terrible has just shown up in Robotropolis. I need to speak with you right away!  
  
"Uncle Chuck"  
  
Sonic, who was reading the note from over her shoulder said, "I'll go Sal, you stay here and take care  
  
of our 'guests.'  
  
"All right, but be careful."  
  
"Sal, have you ever known me not to be?" he said with a mock-innocent look.  
  
"Where do I even begin?"  
  
Sonic just laughed and ran off, almost knocking Sally off her feet.  
  
"Um, how do you two know each other?" a very confused Knuckles asked.  
  
Sally blinked. With the arrival of Uncle Chuck's message, she had completely forgotten that the  
  
robot and echidna were there.  
  
"Ah, wouldn't mind knowin what the hoo-hah's going on myself," added Bunnie.  
  
"It's difficult to explain, but maybe it'd be easier to just show you," Sally said, motioning for them to  
  
follow her.  
  
Sonic and Amy looked up when they heard the door to the hut they were in being unlocked. The  
  
door opened and Sally walked in.  
  
"I can tell you right now we're not robot spies, if that's what you think," Sonic said.  
  
Sally just smiled, "Yes, we've figured that out on our own. We have some friends who would like to  
  
see you." She stepped aside to allow Knuckles in.  
  
"Knux!"  
  
"Knuckles!" shouted Amy.  
  
Now Knuckles was utterly confused, "Sonic? But didn't you just...I mean I saw...but how?"  
  
Sonic looked to Sally, "He saw the 'other me' didn't he?"  
  
"Yes. We've come to the conclusion that you and your friends are from a different reality."  
  
"I'll say," Sonic responded, "From what Amy's told me, Egg butt's in charge here. Back home he's  
  
only come close to winning once, and even then he needed help. Well now that we've got that out of the  
  
way I guess we should introduce ourselves. I'm Sonic the-"  
  
"Fastest thing alive," Sally finished, "I know, there's a Sonic here too remember?"  
  
"Oh, right."  
  
"My name's Sally. The coyote you saw earlier was Antoine. We've already met Amy, Knuckles and  
  
Gamma. Anyone else we should expect?"  
  
"Yeah, you wouldn't happen to have seen a rabbit girl and a two- tailed fox boy would you?"  
  
"Two tailed?"  
  
"Yeah, his name's Miles, but he goes by the nickname Tails."  
  
At that moment SatAM-Tails came running up to the hut, SEGA-Tails and Cream right behind him  
  
"Aunt Sally! You're never going to believe what I found at that place you sent me to check out!"  
  
"Oh, mah stars!" they heard Bunnie gasp.  
  
"I think we just found them," Sally said.  
  
SatAM-Sonic sped into Robotropolis on his way to Uncle Chuck's hideout. Unfortunately he didn't  
  
see a stealth orb floating in a dark alley as he sped past, but it saw him. It lost him after a few seconds but it  
  
had already reported it's sighting.  
  
In Robotropolis HQ, Snively was giving Eggman a tour of the roboticizer lab.  
  
"And this is the primary roboticizer," concluded Snively in a bored manner.  
  
"Interesting, and this device can actually turn living creatures into obedient robots?" Eggman asked,  
  
examining the roboticizer.  
  
"Yes, sir," Snively answered, "Now if you'll excuse me, I must return to overseeing repairs to your  
  
Egg Carrier."  
  
"Yes yes, carry on," Eggman said distractedly as Snively quickly left. This device is simply  
  
marvelous! When I think of all the times I've had that hedgehog or one of his friends in my grasp... One of  
  
these would have come in really handy.  
  
At that moment the large monitor above the roboticizer controls switched on, showing a headshot of  
  
Dr. Robotnik, "Snively- oh, forgive me doctor, I thought Snively was there."  
  
"He said something about repairing the Egg Carrier,"  
  
"Good, at least he's not slacking off. The hedgehog has been spotted entering the city. My cameras  
  
have lost track of him but he's still here, I know it!"  
  
"Hmm, already? I haven't even had a chance to review and prepare. But," Eggman looked over at  
  
Metal Sonic, who was leaning against the wall and looked almost asleep, "Maybe we could give your rodent  
  
a two for one demonstration of Metal Sonic." He smiled evily.  
  
Sonic arrived at one of Robotroplolis' many junkyards. He zoomed around, looking for a specific  
  
pile of garbage. After he found the one he was looking for, he tapped on a pipe in a special pattern. After a  
  
moment, a whole section of the pile lifted up and out stepped the robotisized form of Uncle Chuck.  
  
"Ah, Sonny, you're here," he looked around, "Where's Sally?"  
  
"She had some...problems to deal with back in Knothole so I came by myself. What's up unc?"  
  
"The camera I placed in Robotnik's control room recorded a very frightening situation. Come inside  
  
and I'll play it back for you."  
  
Metal entered the small lab where his counterpart was stored. Eggman was too busy drooling over  
  
the roboticizer to do it himself, so he had sent Metal to fetch Robotnik's version of himself. The lab wasn't  
  
all that big, just a small room with a large metal tube in the center and some control panels along one wall.  
  
There was also a deactivated workerbot. In one corner but he didn't pay attention to it. Metal walked over  
  
to the control panels and pulled a large lever that lifted the cover off the tube.  
  
Inside was an exact duplicate of Metal, at least on the outside. Metal walked around his counterpart,  
  
giving him a look over. After that he flipped the activation switch. The lab came to life with a roar as the  
  
cables hooked up to the other Metal Sonic began charging the robot's power cells. After a few minutes the  
  
machines switched off and the cables retracted into the ceiling. It was quiet for a second before SatAM-  
  
Metal's eyes lit up.  
  
"This is bad, mondo bad," SatAM-Sonic said, he had just finished watching the tape of the two  
  
Robotniks' conversation, "As if one Buttnik was bad enough! And what's this Metal Sonic they were  
  
talking about?"  
  
"I'm not entirely sure," Uncle Chuck told him, "Robotnik's been keeping tight security on it but from  
  
what I've gathered, it seems to be a robotic version of you."  
  
"What's the matter, 'ol Buttnik can't even come up with an original idea anymore so he has to try and  
  
copy one? No robot can compete with me!"  
  
"I hope you're right about that Sonny. You'd better get this news back to knothole."  
  
"Right, catch ya later Unc!"  
  
Seconds later Sonic was running back through Robotropolis. He turned to go down a small alley and  
  
stopped cold, blocking his path was none other than Metal Sonic.  
  
"Hedgehog, priority one! Capture by order of Robotnik!" Metal droned.  
  
Sonic stared for a second before flashing one of his trademark grins, "Sorry, I've already got plans,  
  
and with someone a lot better looking than Robuttnik!"  
  
He turned around to run, but found himself face to face with the other Metal!  
  
"Sorry hedgehog, but I'm afraid we have to insist."  
  
Sonic looked back at the other Metal, which was now charging towards him, with both ways out of  
  
the alley blocked, he did the only other thing he could do, he ran straight up one of the walls. He spared a  
  
glance over his shoulder, expecting to see both robots collide with each other. To his surprise he saw that  
  
while the first was braking hard to turn around, the second one was already zooming up the wall behind him!  
  
Ok, so they're smarter than SWATbots, but they still can't measure up to this hedgehog! he  
  
thought to himself. They raced across the building's roof and down the other side. He then began zipping  
  
in and out of alleyways, trying to throw the two robots off his tail. After a few minutes he looked back to see  
  
only one of the two following him. "Just as I thought, those copy-bots are nothing but cheap rip-offs!" He  
  
raced back towards the junkyard and spotted a large hook hanging from a crane near the top of a pile of  
  
trash. Getting an idea, he pulled out a power ring, and using it's power charged straight at the hook. As he  
  
passed it he shoved it as hard as he could. The shove, combined with his speed swung the hook far out.  
  
Sonic sped onward and looked back. Metal reached the top of the hill just as the hook swung back.  
  
CLANG! Metal went flying backwards headfirst into a pile of trash. "Serves ya right metal head!" he yelled  
  
back. He looked ahead of him again only to see a metallic blue arm shoot across his path! Unable to stop,  
  
Sonic was clothes lined and went flipping end over end to land in a heap nearby.  
  
"I've been wanting to try that for years," SEGA-Metal said to himself. He walked over to the  
  
unconscious Sonic and picked up the power ring. He rotated it in his hands as he examined it. "Hmm,  
  
seems the rings of this universe are different than the rings back home." Just then he heard the whine of a jet  
  
engine as SatAM-Metal ran up. "Where've you been?" SEGA-Metal asked.  
  
"I was...delayed," his counterpart answered.  
  
"I'll bet," Metal muttered as he noticed a metal spring still tangled around the other Metal Sonic's  
  
upper spike, "Would you inform the Doctors that we'll be bringing a very special guest home with us?"  
  
He looked over at Sonic's fallen form and laughed, it felt good to finally beat that hedgehog, even if it was  
  
one from another universe! 


	7. A Super Sonic rescue

Lans: (looking up at the date)Wow, is that really the last time I updated?

Metal Sonic: Well maybe if someone wasn't so lazy-(gets hitgets hit by speeding hover unit)

Lans: (Quickly hides remote control)Ahem, despite the opinions of others I did have legit reasons for not working on this, but they're all gone now. Enjoy chapter seven and go ahead and send in some reviews.

**Chapter 7**

"And this is Rotor's workshop. Don't open his closet, because it just may be the last thing you do,"

Sally told the others and she and the rest of the Freedom Fighters all enjoyed a small laugh. Sally was

showing the newcomers around Knothole.

"Why?" SEGA-Tails asked.

"I'm…not very organized, you could say," Rotor answered for himself.

"Well, that's everything. We'll see about providing you with temporary quarters, until we can find a

way for you to get home. For now, I'm sure Rosie will have lunch ready soon if you're hungry."

"Unit E-102 Gamma does not require the ingestion of nutritious edible items." said Gamma.

"Er, right." Sally still wasn't used to having a robot around, after so many years of fighting them.

Just then there was a beep from Nicole, "Incoming transmission from Sir Charles, Sally."

Sally reached down and picked up Nicole.

"Whoa, cool! A miniature computer with artificial intelligence! That so beats my laptop back home." SEGA-Tails said in wonder.

Sally blinked at him, before turning her attention back to Nicole. "Go ahead Sir Charles, what is it?"

_"Sally! I'm sorry to risk a broadcast like this, but it's an emergency! Sonic's been captured!"_

"WHAT! How?"

_"No time to explain! The roboticizer's still offline from your raid a few days ago, but it'll be online in a few hours. Securities too tight for me to do anything Sally, it's up to you."_

Sally shook her head. "But how? Every other time we've done a rescue like this we've always had Sonic to help pull it off!"

There was a cough from behind her, "And what am I, chopped liver?" SEGA-Sonic said.

Sally stood there looking at him blankly for a moment.

_"Sally, who was that? It sounded almost like-"_ Uncle Chuck started.

"I'll explain later Sir Charles, but I think we CAN get sonic out of there in time!" She said before putting Nicole back on her boot. She then grabbed Sonic by the arm and began running towards the meeting room. Everyone else following them.

"Come on, we've got to teach you everything about Robotropolis that we can in the next half-hour!"

Meanwhile SatAM-Sonic was waking up to a major headache. "Oh man…" he said, sitting up and rubbing his head, "…what hit me?"

"I did."

Sonic looked up and wished he hadn't. He was sitting inside one of the tubes of the roboticizer. He could see what looked like Snively sticking out from beneath the main control panel as he worked to get the machine working. The person who had spoken was one of the Metal Sonics, standing only a few feet away from the tube. The other was standing near the doorway.

"Enjoy your nap hedgehog?" Metal asked.

"Yeah…it was great until I woke up. So where's Robuttnik?" Sonic asked.

"The Doctors are in the control room, throwing a party to celebrate your impending roboticization. Until then I thought we could talk." Metal told him, stepping closer to the tube.

"What about, crome dome?"

"I just wanted to see how similar you are to the Sonic of my world. You see, my personality was developed using his personality, and I'm curious as to how you measure up."

Sonic scoffed, "Pfft, yeah right. If you were really based on me…er, him, Buttnik must not have done a very good job of it."

"What do you mean hedgehog?" Metal asked, his eyes glowing in anger, he didn't like hearing insults about his construction.

"If you were anything like me, you wouldn't be working for someone that makes a blimp look skinny for one thing. You'd be working to take him down! And two, you'd know I was just about to do TH- hey what gives?" He'd reached behind him to grab a power ring, only to find his backpack missing.

"Looking for this?" Metal said, holding up the now dimming power ring. "A very interesting object, unfortunately its power levels have been dropping steadily since I confiscated it from you. And yes, there are times when I…question my loyalty to the Doctor. Though he created me, his tactics and methods have been nothing but ineffective and seem….wrong….in some way that eludes me…."

As he spoke the power ring began to glow just a little brighter. He didn't notice, but Sonic did. Then the ring gave out entirely and vanished. Metal immediately resumed his angry stare. "Fascinating…anyways, enjoy your remaining time hedgehog, because soon we'll both be serving a Dr. Robotnik."

As Metal turned to leave, Sonic slumped back against the side of the tube. "Mondo bad situation hedgehog. Now what're you supposed to do?"

The outskirts of Robotropolis were quiet. Robotnik had increased security around his headquarters and as a result most of the city's SWATbots had been called back from all but the vital areas of the city. Luckily this meant that the freedom fighters could infiltrate the city without any problems. Unfortunately it also meant that the next part of their mission would be extremely difficult to pull off, as Sally was discovering at the moment.

"I don't think I've EVER seen that many SWATbots in one place before." She said as she dropped back down behind the garbage pile they had taken cover behind, a pair of binoculars in her hands.

"Don't sweat it, I once got into a giant airship that was more heavily guarded than this, with just Knux and Tails." SEGA-Sonic said.

"Yeah but Robotnik wasn't the one in charge of that one." Knuckles pointed out.

"Put a downer on everything why don't you Knux," Sonic said sourly.

"He's right sugah. 'Ol Robotnik's got the Sugah-hog in there and he's not gonna let 'im go…unless we make 'im." Bunnie said.

Sally nodded, "Robotnik's expecting an attack. If we're going to get in there we're going to need a diversion."

"I have an idea," SEGA-Tails spoke up.

"Oh this is a marvelous day!" Robotnik said to his counterpart, "In less than an hour the hedgehog will be my servant, and by the end of the week, the rest of those freedom fighters will follow!"

"Yes," Eggman agreed, "Speaking of these freedom fighters, can we expect any sort of rescue attempt from them?"

"Oh, probably. If they really had any intelligence they'd be taking advantage of the decreased security elsewhere, but I know better. They actually care for each other, especially the princess from my observations, so we can probably expect an attempt any time n-" Robotnik was cut off as a small alarm went off on the control console. "Now…" he finished then smiled evilly, "with luck we may not even have to find Knothole to capture the rest of them."

He reached out and hit a button on the console. One of the three large screens came to life showing a view of the fortress' main entrance. But what came up on the screen wasn't one of the freedom fighters, it wasn't even a Mobian. "What is that?" Robotnik asked.

_"Combat mode engaged!"_ Gamma's voice came over the speakers. Eggman quickly turned to look at the screen. "It's that traitor Gamma!" he yelled, "Tell your SWATbots to open fire before-!" Too late, Gamma swept his target laser over the gathered SWATbots then unleashed a small storm of laser blasts that instantly obliterated about ten of them. He then turned around, switched to his wheeled mode and sped off.

"All SAWTbots, destroy the intruder!" Robotnik roared, sending the robots chasing after Gamma. The spy orb they were watching through moved to follow them. Robotnik turned to his counterpart. "What was that, and what did you mean by traitor?" he asked with barely controlled rage.

Eggman took a reflexive step back, momentarily surprised by his counterpart's temper. "That was the last of a…failed experiment. The E-100 series was an attempt of mine to create soldiers that were both powerful and intelligent. However it seems I gave them too much intelligence and one of them, E-102 Gamma, went rogue and destroyed most of the others. I thought it had been destroyed shortly after…seems I was wrong."

On the monitor the SWATbots had just chased Gamma into a dead end alleyway. "Well Doctor it seems we'll have a chance to correct the mistake. Destroy it now!" Robotnik yelled. The SWATbots raised their arms to fire but before they could something dropped from above to land in front of Gamma. With a cry of _"Power laser, fire!"_ there was a bright flash before the screen dissolved into static as the spy orb was destroyed. "Now what?" Robotnik raged.

"The fox boy!" Eggman yelled.

"The child?" Robotnik asked, confused.

"Here in your world, maybe, but in mine his…talent…I begrudgingly admit…rivals mine. That was his mechanized walker, the cyclone. Doctor I think your rodents may have joined forces with mine."

"Obviously…" he said, then something occurred to him. He punched up the interior camera just in time for the microphones there to pick up the trail end of a sonic boom. "No!" he growled, "No, not this time rodent!" he switched cameras to the roboticizer room, "SNIVELY!"

There was a squeak and a muffled banging from off screen before Snively rushed into view. "Y-yes sir?"

"The freedom fighters have infiltrated the base! How long until the roboticizer is ready?"

"Only a few minutes sir. I only have to realign the focusing matrix, but the capacitors are charging now." He said.

"Roboticize the hedgehog as soon as you are ready! I've waited too long for this to miss the chance now!"

"Y-yes sir!" Snively said, before running off again.

"And you two!" Robotnik continued, speaking to the Metal Sonics, "Intercept the freedom fighters before they have a chance to do anything!" he ordered.

"Doctor?" Eggman asked.

"WHAT…er, yes what is it Doctor?" Robotnik said.

"Well, I was just thinking, if the freedom fighters will be distracted here, now would be the perfect time to get the Egg Carrier ready for departure…" Eggman said with a nasty grin, which Robotnik soon returned.

"Which way now, Princess?" SEGA-Sonic asked as they made their way through a service tunnel. The group consisted of him, Sally and Knuckles, as the rest of the freedom fighters were engaged in similar diversions like the one with Gamma. Sally laughed a moment. "What?" Sonic asked.

"I'm sorry, its just that my Sonic hasn't called me princess since we met." She said.

"If you two are through reminiscing could we get moving, these aren't exactly light you know," Knuckles said, adjusting the backpack he was wearing.

"Sorry…Nicole, display map of service tunnels in Robotnik's headquarters in relation to the roboticizer room."

"Accessing Sally," Nicole said, before displaying a holographic map.

Sally studied the map for a minute before she pointed down one tunnel, "That way."

They had barely started moving again when Sally stopped them, "Did you hear something?"

Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other, "Uh, no." Sonic said.

"It was probably nothing then," she said and started to move on when a clawed, metal hand erupted from the floor of the tunnel in front of her, causing her to yell in surprise and fall back. The hand was quickly joined by another and they ripped a hole out of the tunnel as one of the Metal Sonics climbed his way into the tunnel.

"Surrender freedom fighters!" Metal called out.

"Rrraaagh!" Knuckles cried as he threw himself forward and punched the robot in the head, sending it back down the hole into the corridor beneath them. He took off the backpack and threw it to Sonic, "I'll handle him, you two go on!" he said before jumping through after it.

"But-!" Sally started but Sonic cut her off.

"Knux can handle himself, come on!" he said, slinging the backpack over one shoulder and grabbing Sally's hand with the other, pulling her down the tunnel.

SatAM-Sonic was starting to get worried. Snively was almost done with the roboticizer, he didn't have a power ring, and there was still no sign of the other freedom fighters 'ol lard gut said were coming. "Come on Sal…cutting it close is my gig…" he said to himself, though the strain was apparent even to him. Then he heard the familiar sound of a vent cover being pried open. He glanced towards Snively, but he was too busy working to notice.

A panel on the ceiling behind him disappeared into the wall and a second later Sally dropped quietly to the floor. She glanced at Sonic and put a finger to her lips to silence him. She looked to Snively, then looked up and gave a thumbs up. SEGA-Sonic dropped from the tunnel next. The two Sonics just gaped at each other for a minute, still finding this a little unreal, before Sally nudged SEGA-Sonic and pointed to Snively. He grinned and gave her a nod before zipping over to the little man.

Snively barely had time to turn at the sound of SEGA-Sonic's approach before the hedgehog grabbed his nose. "Hey there Snottily," he started, shaking his nose as if he were shaking his hand, "Nice to meet you, I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog, but I guess you already knew that. Say, how bout you and me go for a little spin?" He then began running in circles around Snively, causing him to spin around and around as if in a miniature tornado, Snively shrieking the whole time. A few seconds later Sonic stopped running. Snively spun around a few more times before fainting with a slight moan.

"Good work…Sonic," Sally told him, "Now push that second lever on the left up."

SEGA-Sonic did so, releasing the other Sonic from the roboticizer. He and Sally shared a brief hug before SatAM-Sonic pulled back, looked at his counterpart, then back at Sally and asked, "Is that really what I sound like?"

Sally laughed for a moment, "Come on, let's get out of here."

"You're not going anywhere."

In the doorway stood the other Metal Sonic, flanked by two SWATbots. "I figured if I just waited here you'd come right to me. Now surrender, the doctors would rather see you as robots than dead. You have 20 seconds."

SEGA-Sonic reached into his backpack and pulled out the fresh power ring they had gathered before leaving Knothole. "Sally thought that these might work for me too, but right now you need to take it and get yourselves out." He said, handing the other Sonic the ring.

"Ten seconds," Metal said.

"But what about…" Sally began.

"Plan B, Princess," He said, flipping the top of the backpack up enough to show the light of something else inside. "Now go!"

SEGA-Sonic stepped forward. "Sorry, Metal head, but we can't surrender to you."

"Oh, and why not?" Metal asked, not liking where this was going.

"Cause you're about to have your tin plated hides handed to you!" he said, and closed his eyes in concentration. From out of the backpack, the seven Chaos Emeralds flew up and began circling Sonic.

Metal's pupils expanded in horror, behind SEGA-Sonic, SatAM-Sonic and Sally stood rooted to the spot in fascination. She managed to look down at her hand to Nicole just as the other Sonic began to lift off the floor. "N-Nicole, readings?"

"Immeasurable, Sally."

"SHOOT HIM!" Metal howled, charging forward himself. But it was too late, with a blinding flash, the emeralds disappeared, leaving Sonic, his fur a bright gold, his quills turned upwards, and his eyes red, floating there.

He was once again, Super Sonic.

Metal attacked, a clawed hand reaching out to remove Super Sonic's eyes, but Sonic just slid sideways and grabbed the robot's arm, spinning him around in a golden whirlwind before letting him go to fly into the roboticizer controls, causing them to explode. By now the SWATbots had opened fire, but their lasers barely slowed Super Sonic down. In a flash he had crossed the room and had kicked the head off one bot before they even had time to adjust their aim. The other had barely started to turn before it received a kick to the chest that sent it backwards against the doorframe hard enough to make it fall apart.

Super Sonic flashed one of his trademark grins before looking to the still motionless Sally and Sonic. "Well if you two aren't going to move by yourselves…" he said flying over to swoop down and pick them up, "…all aboard Super Sonic airlines!" he shouted as they flew out the door.

Suddenly there was a jolt as something latched onto the power ring that SatAM-Sonic was still carrying, causing him to reflexively grip it harder. They looked down to see Metal Sonic gripping the other side of the ring. "You're NOT getting away this time!" he shouted.

"No hitchhikers pal!" SatAM-Sonic said, activating the power ring. Power flowed into him as well into Metal Sonic. The robot's eyes went staticcy as the energy overloaded his systems. His grip on the ring failed and he crashed into the floor, rolled a few feet and lay still.

The three of them flew on.

Lans: Hopefully I'll havea new chapter up next week, until then thanks for reading!


	8. Launch

**Chapter 8**

Lans: And once again I'm back. Sorry for the long wait…again.

"Hee-YA!" cried Bunnie as she collided feet first with a SWATbot. The robot's chest caved in as it fell to the ground in a shower of sparks. Bunnie easily back flipped to land on her metal feet. "You doin all right over there Amy-girl?" she called out behind her.

There was a metallic crunch and a SWATbot head flew over her like a frisbee, well like a frisbee with a big dent in one side. "Yeah just fine Bunnie!" Amy called back with a grin, her hammer slung over one shoulder as she waited for the next group of SWATbots to show themselves.

Where'd y'all learn to fight like that, Amy-girl?" Bunnie asked as they ran down an alleyway.

Amy grinned, "When you follow Sonic as long as I have, you have to pick up a few things if you want to keep up."

Knuckles dodged right as the other Metal's claw pierced the wall where his head had been a second ago. He responded with a punch to the robot's chest that allowed him to get out of the corner he'd been pinned in, and then hit Metal in the back of the head, sending his head into the wall with a loud clang.

Knuckles was surprised how easy this was. With the beating the other Metal, and he was pretty sure this was this world's Metal, had given them earlier, he was surprised to still be standing, let alone an even match for the robot.

"Come on scrap heap, I've had badniks give me a better fight than you are!" He taunted. Metal spun around, then before he could even think of dodging, blasted across the hall and slammed into him. Knuckles suddenly found himself pinned against the wall behind him, the robot holding his wrists.

While they struggled, Metal took the time to analyze his opponent. "Species: Echidna. …Your kind is supposed to be extinct."

"Yeah?" Knuckles grunted, while trying to break the robot's hold, "Well, isn't it…your lucky day ugh that we're…not!"

He shoved forward, managing to force Metal back far enough to let him kick the robot off. Then he jumped back off the wall and delivered a flying double punch to Metal's torso, sending him flying back against the far wall.

Metal got up and looked at Knuckles, "This conflict is futile. You will tire long before you can inflict enough damage to disable me."

"Well…I'm not tired yet, are you?"

"I do not tire."

"Good, then this'll probably be the best fight I've had since I met Rouge!"

"Ooh…" Snively moaned, sitting up and rubbing his head, "What happened, the last thing I remember was…_hedgehog!_" he growled. He quickly got to his feet. One glance around the room confirmed his suspicions: once again his uncle's plans had gone awry.

Dashing out of the wrecked roboticizer room, Snively made a beeline for the command room. "Sirs, sirs!" he shouted, "The prisoners have escaped! The prisoners have esca-," he cut off mid yell when he entered the room, only to find it empty. "Sirs?" he called, but both Robotniks were nowhere to be seen.

"Typical…have to do everything myself…" he mutters as he runs up to the control panel. He pressed a couple of buttons and a small microphone popped out. "This is Sub-master Snively to all SWATbots! Prisoners have escape the roboticizer room, lock down the main command center at once!"

Super Sonic blew through the corridors of the command center, Sally and the other Sonic hanging onto him tightly. _So this is what it feels like to juice secondhand_, SatAM Sonic thought to himself idly. Suddenly Sally gasped and called out, "Sonic, wait, go back!" When both of them turned to look at her she elaborated, "I saw Knuckles…and the other Metal Sonic!"

Super Sonic nodded, slowing down so that turning around wouldn't kill his passengers. They flew back along their path and turned down the corridor Sally had pointed out. Ahead they saw Knuckles still locked in combat with the other Metal. "Hey Knux! Need a lift?" He asked, lowering his legs slightly. Knuckles smirked, and before Metal realized what was happening, he'd grabbed Super Sonic's legs and was carried off down the hallway.

"Looks like we got there just in time," Super Sonic said, looking back at Knuckles.

"Um, Sonic?" Sally said

"You kidding?" Knuckles answered, interrupting her, "If you guys had gotten there a minute later he would have been scrap metal! I was getting bored!"

"SONIC!" Sally yelled.

"What?" Both Sonics asked.

"DOOR!" she said, looking directly ahead, eyes wide.

The other three looked in the same direction to see the fortress' main entrance rushing towards them, the heavy blast door already more than half closed. Sonic and Knuckles went as wide eyed as Sally, but Super Sonic just grinned and shouted, "Hang on tight guys!" before speeding up. All three felt a jerk and gripped tighter as Super Sonic sped up. As the door got closer Sally could see that it would be too closed to go through before they got there. "Sonic, stop! We can't make it!"

"Yes we can!" He answered, speeding up even more. A second later a blue force field started to form in front of him, appearing more solid the faster he went. A split second before they reached the door it closed with a ringing thump. A split second after, the entire building shook with the impact as they went right through the closed door, Super Sonic's field protecting them from becoming smear marks for some workerbot to clean up.

Snively was knocked off his feet as the entire building suddenly shook violently. "What on Mobius was that?" He scrambled to his feet and began furiously pushing buttons on the console. The center monitor lit up with a view of the main entrance, or what was left of it. A large hole was torn in the metal of the blast door. He squeaked fearfully and pressed a few more buttons, switching the screen to a view from a spy orb, showing Super Sonic and his passengers streaking away over the skies of Robotropolis. He growled to himself, super powers or no, he wasn't going to let that hedgehog humiliate him like that! "All Stealthbots, scramble priority one! Intercept and destroy unidentified flying hedgehog!"

"Wow…this is amazing!" Sally said. Sure she'd flown before, but that had been on Dulcy. Flying like this was slightly different.

"Yeah," SatAM Sonic coughed as he passed a little too close to a cloudbank, "If you don't mind the smog."

"Heh, this is nothing," Super Sonic smirked, "You should see the view from space!"

"Space?" both native inhabitants of this universe echoed.

"Oh boy, here we go…" Knuckles muttered, sensing a Sonic ego trip coming on. But it was at that moment that the first missile streaked by, narrowly missing them.

"Hey what the..?" Super Sonic gasped, turning to see what had just taken a pot shot at them, only to see a veritable swarm of Stealthbots headed their way.

"Oh man, so much for all that hard work wrecking Stealthbot factories," SatAM Sonic groaned.

"Robotnik must have kept a reserve supply," said Sally.

"Yeah and we must have pissed him off royally if he's sending them all after us!" Knuckles said, then gave a quick tug at Super Sonic's shoe, "Sonic, get a move on!"

"Right!" he said, taking them into a dive. Like a pack of angry bees, the stealthbots followed. The rooftops of Robotropolis rushed up at them, and then flashed by as they flew down to street level. Missiles exploded above and around them, taking large chunks out of the surrounding buildings. A few of the flying robots crashed into buildings and exploded, but most kept doggedly to the chase. They kept barely a step ahead of them as Super Sonic weaved around buildings, down alleys, and even through a passing patrol of SWATbots. Stealthbots crashed into walls, and collided with SWATbots or other Stealthbots, shrinking the swarm. But then a new problem showed up.

Four, newer version, stealthbots broke ahead of the main pack. Unlike their counterparts, these were armed with high powered lasers instead of missiles. They opened fire, energy beams following them around corners and through the streets, leaving long scars in the concrete. "I can't keep this up forever," Super Sonic said, "And I can't fight them while carrying you guys!"

"You don't have to!" Sally shouted, "Look!" There was the roar of a jet engine from above them and the sound of a pulse laser. Suddenly the stealthbots behind them started exploding as several energy blasts slammed into them. The cyclone, in jet mode, swooped overhead, then banked around to fly even with them, just above the rooftops.

"Sonic!" Sega Tails called from the cockpit. "Great timing buddy!" Super sonic called back. He flew up above the plane so he could set Sonic and Sally down on the wings, while Knuckles let go to land in the seat behind Tails. "Meet you back at the rendezvous!" Tails said, and gunned the throttle

Super Sonic smirked, "All right, bot bashin' time!"

He broke off, curving around to face the remaining stealthbots. One fired a missile at him, but he simply caught it and threw it back. "Not so tough now that there's no one but me to shoot at, huh?" Super Sonic said, as energy began to charge in his hands. "SONIC WIND!" he yelled, throwing his arms forward. A pair of blue energy saw blades erupted from his palms, flying toward, and then through, the approaching bots, cutting them to ribbons. He watched the remains fall to the ground for a second, and then flew off.

Back in the control room, Snively stood facing the monitor as Super Sonic flew off. He was sweating bullets and whimpering slightly. He wasn't sure whether to defect or head for the hills. One thing was clear though: if that version of the hedgehog stayed around to help the freedom fighters any longer, his uncle's empire was going to come crashing down around his big fat head.

Which brought up another thing, he thought to himself, now beginning to tremble as well. What he would do to him when he found out that he's lost an entire wing of stealthbots. But Snively barely had time to contemplate this before another monitor popped on.

"SNIVELY!" shouted Robotnik as he appeared on the screen.

Snively eeped and ducked under the console. "Y-y-yes, s-s-sir?" he asked, getting up slowly.

"Has the hedgehog been roboticized yet?"

Snively gulped visibly, "N-no, sir…"

"WELL WHY NOT?"

"He-e esc-c-caped, s-"

"ESCAPED?"

"The f-freedom fighters r-rescued him…"

"YOU LITTLE MUTANT! HOW COULD YOU BE SO INCOMPENTANT TO…" Robotnik stopped mid rant, listening to someone off screen. He seemed to calm slightly, "Never mind, I'll deal with you later. Find the Metal Sonics and get down to launch bay 7 immediately!"

As Robotnik turned off the communications link, he turned to face Eggman. "I hope you have an adequate explanation as to why the hedgehog's escape shouldn't concern me," he growled. To say he wasn't happy was an understatement. He'd had his most hated enemy right in the palm of his hand, and once again, he'd slipped through his fingers before he could tighten his grip.

"Because it shouldn't," Eggman answered, "He has no idea what we're planning. And those simpletons from my world will be no help, especially since the chaos readings indicate that Sonic's used his Super form recently. It will be a while before he can do that again. And soon, you'll have ultimate power at your fingertips."

Robotnik glared at his counterpart, though he did crack an evil grin at the sound of ultimate power. "Are you sure that your scanners can find them? How do you know they even exist on this world?"

Eggman chuckled, making further adjustments to the panel he was standing at, "Legends. My world had them, and so does yours. All legends have some basic element of truth, covered over with exaggeration. Though in this case, there is more truth than exaggeration." He finished what he was doing and suddenly a screen lit up with a display. Eggman stared at it for a second, hmmming to himself, "That's odd...they shouldn't be able to be there unless…" he grinned, "Oh of course."

"What is it?" Robotnik asked.

Eggman just kept grinning, "Something else our worlds share. Something that will make victory inevitable, especially since we will not make the same mistakes as last time… Come, let us prepare for launch!"

….

System start….

Loading Mechabot O/S v.2.6…

ERROR: Subprogram compliance.exe corrupted, attempting to abort startup…

Abort failed….

Startup complete…

Main systems functioning….

Activating optical sensors…

Metal's eyes snapped on, and he was immediately hit with the robot equivalent of a headache. A quick diagnostic showed some minor systems shorts from the power ring, but nothing of major importance. He hear footsteps coming down the hallway and immediately assumed a battle posture, only to stop as it was only Snively and a pair of SWATbots, followed by his counterpart.

"So here's where you've been hiding." Snively said.

"I haven't been hiding," Metal responded angrily, "I was trying to keep the prisoner from escaping, something you failed to do, Snootly!"

Snively was taken aback by the insult, "You will respect your superiors, robot! Now, we are to report to hanger bay 7 for immediate departure. Follow me."

Metal scoffed, "I think I can get there on my own. Probably be faster too," he said, before blasting off in a burst of speed.

As soon as Snively had kept himself from falling over, he glared at the spot where the robot had been. "That one's too like the hedgehog for comfort," he said, then glanced at the other Metal Sonic, "At least you follow orders." He turned and headed off in the direction the first Metal had gone, the SWATbots falling in step behind him.

The other Metal said nothing. His eyes glowed brightly for a second before he too followed Snively.

When SEGA Sonic arrived at the meeting spot, he found everyone waiting for him. He'd landed in a back alley to change back to regular Sonic, that way any sensors wouldn't be able to track his energy signature. "Well…I'd certainly call that mission accomplished." He said, grinning widely.

"Ah'll say," said Bunnie, "From what Ah hear, you've done us a month's work of sabotage in a few minutes, Sugah Hog."

"Those really were the chaos emeralds, weren't they?" Sally asked.

"Unless you know any other emeralds that can do that." Sega Sonic said.

"Ok, what's a chaos emerald?" SatAM Sonic asked.

"They're legendary stones, a little like the power stone, but far more powerful," Sally answered, "According to legend they're supposed to give the person who holds all seven…and well, it looks like it's not just a legend."

"Too bad we don't have them anymore," Knuckles said, "They always scatter each time we use them."

Sega Sonic took off his backpack, "Not this time," he said, opening the flap to reveal the emeralds within.

"Weird, I wonder why they didn't scatter this time?" Amy said.

"Maybe it's because this isn't our home dimension," Sega Tails said.

"Well whatever the reason, let's jam back to Knothole before a patrol shows up," SatAM Sonic said.

And then the ground began to shake.

"What's goin on?" Sega Sonic shouted.

"Over there, look!" Bunnie shouted, pointing.

Over beyond the edge of the junkyards, an enormous pair of camouflaged doors were sliding open, revealing the huge hanger below. The shaking stopped when they finished opening, but then came the sounds of powerful jet engines as something began to rise out of the hanger.

"What is that?" Sally said.

Sega Sonic's eyes widened, "Oh no,"

"It's…" Knuckles began.

"The Egg Carrier!" the present members of the Sega gang said together.


	9. Preparations

**Chapter 9**

It hovered there, ominously, casting a dark shadow over the ground below. It was the Egg Carrier, fully repaired, rearmed, and now with two Robotniks at the controls.

"Oh mah stars…" whispered Bunnie, "That thing is HUGE!"

"And packing some mondo heat," SatAM Sonic added.

Sally nodded, "This is bad. That ship could level the whole forest. They wouldn't even have to know where knothole is to wipe it out."

"Especially if they fixed the main cannon," Tails put in.

"No biggy guys," Sega Sonic said, "We sank that thing once, and we can do it again!"

There was a roar and then the great engines of the airship lit up. The Egg Carrier started moving, slowly at first, but picking up speed, pointed straight at the Great Forest.

"We've got to get back to Knothole, to try and prepare some sort of defense…" Sally started, but was cut off by Amy.

"Wait, look at that!" she said, pointing at the ship.

Overhead the Egg Carrier slowly tilted slightly to the left and then began to turn, heading back towards Robotropolis, and then passing over the city.

"What? Where're they going?" Sally asked herself, pulling Nicole off her boot, "Nicole, check the ship's heading."

"Checking, Sally…" Nicole began but was interrupted.

"Egg Carrier heading, 280 degrees, west by north west," Gamma said.

"Er…confirmed Sally," Nicole said.

"I don't get it…there's nothing in that direction that he doesn't already control…why take a ship like that out into the middle of nowhere?" Sally pondered.

"I don't know, Sal, but it can't be just for sight seeing, they're up to something big time," SatAM Sonic said.

Sally nodded, "Agreed. Sonic and…err…Sonic, come with me, we're going to see if Uncle Chuck knows anything about what they're up to. Everyone else, head back to Knothole. Bunnie, have Rotor get the Freedom Stormer ready."

"Aye aye, Sally-girl," Bunnie said, before dashing off, quickly followed by the rest of the group.

Sally glanced back and forth between the two Sonics for a second, relieved that she could ell them apart by their shoes at least. "All right, let's move. Sonic you know the way.

SatAM Sonic nodded and said, "You got it Sal." While at the exact same time Sega Sonic said, "No I don't."

SatAM Sonic looked at his counterpart, "She meant me,"

"Oh, right," Sega Sonic replied, "Man this whole thing gives me a headache,"

"You and me both pal," SatAM Sonic agreed. "Let's juice!" he yelled, scooping up Sally as he sped off.

"Hey, no fair!" Sega Sonic protested as he raced to catch up.

…..

"Tails?"

"Yes, Cream?"

"Do you go on missions with the others?"

SatAM Tails and Cream were back in Knothole, up in the lookout tower. Tails had a pair of binoculars and was scanning the area for any sign that one of Robotnik's patrols might be coming towards the village. Cream was supposed to be helping him, but she was just leaning against the rail, watching the scenery. Cheese was picking up her slack though, hovering over her head with his own pair of binoculars.

"Not really," Tails answered, "Sonic takes me along on his solo missions sometimes, but Aunt Sally always gets mad whenever she finds out. She says I'm 'too young' or that it's 'too dangerous'."

"Oh."

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?" Cream asked.

"Do you go on missions with your freedom fighters?" Tails clarified.

"Well, yes," she said, never having thought of the group as freedom fighters, even though it fit, they may not be fighting to free the planet from Robotnik, but they do fight to protect it from him. "But I've never really liked fighting, I only went because I had to." She continued. "The first time I joined everyone in an adventure, Robotnik had kidnapped my mother. Then I went with Amy and Mr. Big, he's a cat, to rescue Cheese's brother Chocola from Metal Sonic, then there was Emerl…" She paused. "I guess I've only really gone because I had too, not because I really wanted to."

"Why not? Fighting Robotnik's a good thing."

"I know," Cream sighed, "But people get hurt when they fight, and sometimes….they don't come back."

Tails wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he turned his attention back to his watch. His ears perked up as he spotted Bunnie running out of the trees, heading for the entrance to the sliding tree. "Hey look, they're back!"

…..

As soon as she was out of the haystack, Bunnie rushed over to Rotor's workshop. Before she'd even gotten to the door, she could hear that he had that "music" machine of his on again, how he could work with that racket she would never know. She pushed open the door, and saw Rotor busy working on the deroboticizer. He was facing away from her so he didn't notice Bunnie entering.

"Rotor!" she called, but her voice was drowned out by the music machine. Bunnie marched up right behind him and shouted at the top of her lungs. "ROTOR!"

Rotor jumped about a foot in the air before fumbling with a small remote that he used to turn the machine off. "Bunnie, you almost made me jump out of my skin!"

"Sorry, shugah," Bunnie apologized, "But I'm afraid we have a little 'ol crisis on our hands. Sally wants you to get the 'ol Freedom Stormer out of the mothballs."

"Um, ok," Rotor replied, glad he hadn't scrapped the plane for spare parts, "Are we going somewhere?"

Bunnie nodded, a grim look crossing her features, "Most likely sugah."

…...

Back in Robotropolis, a pair of twin Sonic booms disturbed the silence of an apparently deserted, and junk clogged, alley. Both Sonics came to a stop near the large junk pile, and Sally hopped out of her Sonic's arms.

"This is where your Uncle lives?" Sega Sonic asked, "I'd fire the decorator."

"Cute," SatAM Sonic said, picking up a nearby brick.

For a split second Sega Sonic thought he was going to hit him with it, but then SatAM Sonic used it to bang twice on a nearby pipe, then twice again. It was quiet for a moment, then a whole section of the junk pile lifted up to reveal a hidden doorway. SatAM Sonic quickly led the others inside.

"Yo, Unc!" SatAM Sonic greeted.

"Hello, Sir Charles," Sally said.

The roboticized form of Sir Charles stood up from where he'd been sitting and turned to greet the two. "Sonic, Sally, I…" He cut off mid sentence as he saw not one, but two Sonics standing there. "Oh my…" He looked from Sega Sonic to the other two, "I take it that Robotnik isn't the only one with a duplicate running around then?"

"I'm afraid a full explaination will have to wait, Sir Charles," Sally said, "Robotnik, or rather the Robotniks, have just launched an enormous flying battleship."

Uncle Chuck nodded, "Yes, the Egg Carrier. It just appeared out of thin air." He broke into an amused grin, "Settled right on top of a couple of SWATbot factories on the south side, squashed them flat." However his grin disappeared as he continued, "I didn't find out exactly what it was until after your visit Sonic, otherwise I would have mentioned it."

"So do you know what they were planning with the thing?" SatAM Sonic asked.

"Not exactly. It was moved to an underground drydock for repairs, obviously it's not there now. But, the new Robotnik promised ours that he could help him find the Chaos Emeralds, but those are only legends."

The two Sonics and Sally looked at each other gravely.

"Not as legendary as you might think, Chuck," Sega Sonic said, taking off his backpack and opening it to reveal the emeralds inside.

"Oh my…" Uncle Chuck reached inside and picked up the green emerald, rotating it slowly as he examined it. "But if you have the emeralds here…" he said, returning the emerald, "Where are they going?"

Something clicked in Sega Sonic's mind, "Oh man, they're not after our emeralds, they're after yours, I mean, this world's!" A chill went down his spine as he thought of something else, "And if I'm right, we've got to beat the Egg Carrier to where it's going! Otherwise history's about to repeat itself in a bad way."

…….

"Oh, yes, it's just as I predicted," Eggman chuckled as he looked over the readings on the emerald radar. Robotnik stood behind him, watching with anticipation, while his Metal Sonic stood watch nearby.

"Then…it really does exist?" Robotnik asked eagerly.

"Of course!" Eggman turned away from the screen to face his counterpart. "Our worlds may be different, but there are certain parallels that they both share. That detestable hedgehog, for instance." He pointed to the large blip on the screen, "This is another. The chaos emeralds will be there and even if they aren't I'm sure that a suitable consolation prize awaits us as well. Now…here's the basic plan, and if I'm right, another…parallel…will keep our mutual problems at bay…"

…….

"They're going WHERE!?" Knuckles shouted.

They were all in the Freedom Fighter's meeting hut, Sally and the two Sonics having just returned from Robotropolis.

"You heard me Knux, so sit down," Sega Sonic told him.

"BUT…" he tried to protest, but was interrupted by Amy.

"He said sit down Knuckles!" she said, grabbing his tail and yanking him back into his seat. Knuckles turned to give her an angry scowl, but she responded with a glare of her own.

"Look," Sally said, attempting to defuse an argument, "Obviously we're not going to let the Robotniks get their hands on the emeralds, but our problem right now isn't where we're going, but how to get there. Rotor's getting the Freedom Stormer ready, but, no offense to Rotor, it was never the most…air worthy plane ever, and I don't know if it could handle such a long trip. And it defiantly isn't capable of catching the Egg carrier."

"No problem!" Sega Tails said enthusiastically, "We can tow it using the Cyclone."

Sally nodded, "That could work, but we'll need to make sure we can detach it in an emergency."

"And don't forget about me!" Dulcy piped in.

"Right." Sally nodded in agreement. "Ok then, let's get moving."

……

Metal Sonic, the one not from this universe, was busy on the forward flight deck, overseeing the SWATbots and worker bots as they went about preparing the whole wing of hover units that Robotropolis had supplied. Or at least that's what he was supposed to be doing. In reality he was sorting through his systems. Something was…wrong. He could feel it. He wasn't sure what, he'd checked his systems three times so far, and hadn't detected any anomalies, but still this…feeling…of wrongness lingered. It'd been with him ever since he'd rebooted after receiving that power surge from the ring. Something had changed, inside him, but he couldn't figure out what it was.

Metal put it aside for now. He hopped down from the runways and headed forward until he was standing at the front of the egg carrier, right above the opening nose cone than housed the egg cannon. He considered the situation. Was the Doctor really about to try almost the exact same scheme he had used years ago? Though he had to admit the odds were higher for success this time, especially if there weren't to many differences between this world and theirs.

"You there!"

Metal winced, it was that Snively again. He turned to see him standing on the edge of the runways, looking at him.

"Get up here!"

Did he think he was a mindless E-series or something? His counterpart may be subservient, be he certainly had more pride than that! He'd love to teach the small human a thing or two…maybe switch his shampoo with a hair remover so he'd lose those three or so he had left. However he did return to the flight deck anyway.

"You're supposed to be overseeing the workerbots, not enjoying the view!" Snively told him once Metal had returned.

Metal scoffed, "These drones need supervision about as much as I need to take orders from you."

The little human looked like he might burst a blood vessel, "How dare you, I…"

"YOU, are someone who needs to learn WHO he can give orders to," Metal interrupted, getting close enough to stick his pointy nose into Snively's large one. "Now, if _Dr. Robotnik_ needs me to do something important, come find me," he said, and flew off, heading towards the rear of the ship, leaving behind a very pissed Snively.

………

"Ok try it now!" SEGA Tails called as he extracted himself from the Freedom Stormer's engine compartment.

Rotor gave him a thumbs up and hit the start button. The engine gave a cough, a sputter, then came up to a roar before settling down to a loud purr. The walrus climbed out of the cockpit and came over to stand next to the fox. "Wow, she's sounding better than ever!"

"No problem," Tails said, "I mostly just had to replace a lot of parts, most of them looked like they should be on a junk pile, I mean…" he stopped when he saw the look on Rotor's face, "What's wrong?"

"Well…most of the parts I used to build it came from Robotnik's junk piles…" Rotor explained embarrassedly.

However Tails' ears perked up at this, "Wow, really? If you can build stuff like this from junk, I'd love to see what you could do with new stuff!"

"Well…thanks," Rotor replied, unused to such praise. "Let's get your plane hooked up now." He said, changing the subject.

Tails nodded, "Right." And they headed back to Rotor's workshop to get what they'd need.

………

Meanwhile, while they waited for the travel arrangements to be finished, the two Sonics had moved themselves to the outskirts of the village, racing each other in laps around it to try and see who was faster. So far it had proven a tie. They were currently taking a breather at the bridge near the village's exit.

"So…these chaos emeralds, how do they work exactly?" SatAM Sonic asked his counterpart.

The other Sonic shrugged, "I don't know, exactly. Tails has a couple of ideas…but they've got too many scientific words in there for me to understand. Mostly you just concentrate on what you want to do, and they do it."

"Cool. And what about the mondoly awesome Super thing?"

"You need all seven for that, again we don't really know why," Sonic sighed, "We've been using them for years, but the emeralds are still a big mystery mostly."

"Huh," SatAM Sonic digested that for a moment, before grinning, "Bet it's still way past cool to do though."

"You got that right!" Sega Sonic said, grinning right back, "Now, I think this time I'll totally smoke you in speed!"

"Ha! You wish!" the other responded, before they both vanished in twin dust trails.


End file.
